Months after she was kidnapped in Baghdad, Russian-Israeli researcher and activist Elizabeth Tsurkov appeared in a video released on Iranian-backed Iraqi Shia militias’ media platforms. In the video she spoke in Hebrew and stated she was an agent of both the US’s Central Intelligence Agency... MORE

Two Baluch separatist groups involved in 20 years of violent insurgency are reportedly in talks to merge and establish a unified militant group. The two groups involved in the unification of the “liberation movement” are the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) and the Bashir Zaib faction... MORE

Hamas has claimed responsibility for two rocket attacks on northern Israel from Lebanon this year, one of which occurred after the group’s massacre of Israelis on October 7. These were launched from bases in southern Lebanon under the control of Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah (Anadolu... MORE

Editor’s Note: This is the second article in a two-part series on People’s Liberation Army (PLA; 人民解放军) officer cadet recruitment since the PLA reduced the number of officer academic institutions (院校) in 2017 to 34, as part of the 11th Force Reduction that began in... MORE

While much of the world’s attention was focused on the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, the UN Security Council’s sanctions on the development and export of Iranian missiles quietly expired on October 18 (Amwaj.media, October 22). The sanctions were part of UN Security Council Resolution... MORE

On November 25, a “Big Circle” (Bol’shoi Krug) meeting of “over 200 delegates from 83 regions of Russia and 43 countries of the world” took place in Moscow to discuss Cossack issues and confirm the election of Chief Ataman Nikolai Dyakanov as leader of the... MORE

On November 28, Alen Simonyan, head of Armenia’s National Assembly, told journalists that “the ball is in Azerbaijan’s court” regarding peace negotiations between the two countries. He added, “Armenia fully supports the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. … If desired, the peace agreement can be signed... MORE

On November 16, Baku canceled a meeting between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan scheduled to take place on November 20 in Washington (Apa.az, November 16). The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry asserted that, under the current circumstances, it is not possible to proceed with US-mediated... MORE

On November 19, the wives and mothers of mobilized Russian soldiers held a protest in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk against rumors of another mass mobilization and demanded the return of “their guys.” Similar protests have swept across Russia in recent weeks but were met... MORE

The Kremlin has welcomed the Israel-Hamas truce in Gaza that began on November 24. The pause, however, does not fit into Russia’s larger designs for the Middle East. From Moscow's perspective, further escalation would have been a much better option in disrupting the US-led world... MORE